Lady Clifford gave her a cryptic smile. “My dear child, it’s never too latefor anything.”
Chapter Twenty-three
It was a short drive from St. Clement Dane’s Church to No. 26 Maddox Street, but tonight London felt as vast as an ocean to Sophia as they made their way through an infinity of dark, endless streets.
She cradled Tristan’s head in her lap and murmured soothingly to him, but his eyes never flickered. He hadn’t regained consciousness by the time they arrived, and a dark red pool of his blood was spreading across the pale gray velvetcarriage seats.
Sophia was able to draw a few calming breaths into her lungs when they arrived at the school at last, but then another lifetime seemed to pass as they waited in the carriage for Daniel and Giles Wakeford to arrive. It wasn’t more than ten minutes before a hackney coach skidded up behind Lady Clifford’s carriage and disgorged the two men at the curb outside the Clifford School, but by then Sophia was shaking with stark panic.
Lady Clifford ordered Tristan be taken to a downstairs bedchamber, and she, Daniel, and Giles Wakeford remained closeted inside it with him for the better part of the night. Sophia had been left to hover outside the door, her eyes burning with unshed tears and her every breath choked with dread. One hour dragged after the next until finally Lady Clifford emerged to tell Sophia Tristan’s condition remained uncertain, and ordered her to her bedchamber to rest.
Rest. Sophia did as she was told, but there would be no rest for her today. She thought of Tristan’s wan face, his pale lips, the dark red blood soaking his shirt, and wondered if she’d ever sleep again. She didn’t even attempt to lie down in her bed, but stood by her bedchamber window, the drapes fisted in her white-knuckled grip. “Why doesn’tsomeonecome?”
“Someone would have, if the worst had happened.” Cecilia had joined Sophia in their bedchamber, her usually rosy cheeks as pale as Tristan’s had been. “Until then, we won’t give in to despair, will we? Indeed, I won’t allow it, Sophia. Now, comehere, dearest.”
She held out a hand to Sophia, who abandoned her post by the window to join Cecilia on the bed. “There, that’s better,” Cecilia murmured, pattingSophia’s hand.
Cecilia was making a great effort to remain optimistic, and a less discerning friend might have believed she was. She sat stoically on the edge of the bed, every hair in place, with Sophia’s hand securely between her own.
But Sophiawasn’t fooled.
Cecilia was more unnerved than Sophia had ever seen her. Of all the bad omens and waking nightmares that had made up this night, Cecilia’s disquiet bothered Sophia most of all. If Cecilia was anything less than unrelentingly positive, then things were very bad, indeed.
Sophia spent the next few hours pacing from the bed to the window to the bedchamber door, listening for Lady Clifford’s footsteps in the hallway. She and Cecilia didn’t speak much, but her friend never abandoned her. The sun had just sent its first tentative rays into the sky when Sophia turned from the window to face Cecilia, and broke her silence at last. “I love him, Cecilia. I’m inlove with him.”
Cecilia raised her head, and her gaze met Sophia’s. “I know.”
Sophia managed a half-smile and a shrug, but the tears she’d kept at bay all night glittered at the corners of her eyes. “I’m in love with an earl. It’s the most foolish, absurd thing ever, yet I’ve gone and fallen in lovewith an earl.”
An earl who’s betrothed to a ladyin Oxfordshire.
It was on the tip of Sophia’s tongue to say it aloud, to confide everything to Cecilia, but somethingheld her back.
“I know, dearest,” Cecilia repeated with a sigh, then patted the empty space beside her on the bed. “Come here.”
Sophia shuffled over to the bed, dropped down beside Cecilia, and wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. When had it grown so cold? “Howdid you know?”
Cecilia tucked an arm around Sophia’s shoulders, squeezing her closer when Sophia lay her head against her shoulder. “Because it’s who you are, Sophia. You hang about deserted graveyards at night. You scale earls’ townhouses, hide on their roofs, and break into their kitchens. You’ve never been one to shy away from danger, even at the expense of your own safety. So, why should you behave any differently with your heart?”
“Oh, dear. You do insist on making me into a heroine, don’t you?” Sophia asked, with a forlorn little laugh.
“Of course, you’re a heroine, a wonderfully brave sort of heroine. You always have been.”
Sophia sniffled. “I wish I was a coward. I’d be much better off.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Cecilia stroked a hand over Sophia’s hair. “Falling in love is a great risk, certainly, but it offers the greatest reward. Why, just look at Adelineand Theodore.”
Sophia closed her eyes and tried to empty her mind of everything but Adeline and Theodore’s happy ending, but the image of Richard Poole on top of Tristan with the knife raised over his head seemed to be painted on the inside of her eyelids. Time and again she saw the knife arc through the air, the blade gleaming in the faint light before it plunged into Tristan’s chest, and the blood, thick and dark, spurting everywhere…
She shuddered, and turned her face into Cecilia’s shoulder. “What reward? He’s going to die, Cecilia. Tristan’s going to die, and I’llbe left alone.”
She’d been alone before. The thought of being so again shouldn’t cause her such despair, yet somehow losing Tristan made her feel more alone than she ever had before.
“Hush. You know better than that. You’ll never be alone, no matter what becomes of Lord Gray.” Cecilia kept stroking Sophia’s hair and muttering words of comfort, but she didn’t try and convince Sophia Tristan would be all right. She didn’t make any empty promises, and she didn’t say he wouldn’t die.
Cecilia was a true romantic, but she never lied. For all her starry-eyed dreams and fancies, she’d seen too much of life to believe every story hada happy ending.
So, Sophia wept, and Cecilia rocked her gently as the hours crawled by. The summer sun, which had chosen this day of all days to shine with unrelenting cheerfulness, was high in the sky before Sophia gave up her struggle to stay awake, and succumbed to an exhausted sleep.
